Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter Seymour Hersh will give a lecture on topics from his most recent book, “Chain of Command: The Road From 9/11 to Now,” on Wednesday at 2 p.m. in the Carpenter Center.
Hersh is well-known for his history of reporting on U.S. government misconduct and international involvement.
“Seymour Hersh is one of the people who has held public officials feet to the fire,” said Christopher Burnett, a journalism professor at CSULB. “He is an institution for investigative reporting.”
In 2004, Hersh’s three historic articles on the torture of Iraqi detainees at the Abu Ghraib prison for The New Yorker magazine were among the first to report the controversial issue. These reporters were the basis for his eighth and most recent book.
“In the 1960s and early 1970s, [Hersh’s] intrepid reporting, combined with his gadfly aura, made him a hero to many of his colleagues,” wrote Scott Sherman in the Columbia Journalism Review.
Hersh entered journalism in 1959 as a police reporter and first gained widespread recognition in 1969 after publishing the results of an interview with a U.S. Army lieutenant who told Hersh about his troops killing hundreds of South Vietnamese civilians the year before.
Hersh won the 1970 International Reporting Pulitzer “for his exclusive disclosure of the Vietnam War tragedy at the hamlet of My Lai,” in his book, “My Lai 4.” The story contributed to the anti-war movement and led to more draftees filing for conscientious objector status.
“Since then, he has tackled a wide array of subjects: Watergate, CIA domestic spying, the 1973 coup in Chile, Israeli nuclear policy, the destruction of Korean Air Lines Flight 007, the India-Pakistan conflict, Mobil Oil company’s activities in Kazakhstan, and new developments in cryptography,” according to Sherman.
Hersh brought new life to The New York Times’ investigative reporting when he joined their staff in 1972 to report on the Watergate scandal. He left The New York Times in 1979, and has been a freelance reporter since. He has written many articles regarding U.S. military involvement in the Middle East for The New Yorker magazine since 1993.
Since 2005, he has written multiple articles on U.S. military plans regarding Iran.
Hersh’s lecture is part of the 2nd annual Distinguished Speakers Series at CSULB. The event at the Carpenter Center will have a one-hour lecture by Hersh, followed by a panel discussion and questions from the audience. The panel will include Craig Smith, director of the First Amendment Center, Mark Stephens, publisher of Long Beach Magazine, and Colleen Donnelly, editor-in-chief of the Daily Forty-Niner.
Tickets are still availble for the event, and there is a half-off discount for CSULB students. Call the Carpenter Center’s box office at (562) 985-7000.